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Winter beer = dark lager for me, and Olde Meck's traditional German brewing methods (coupled with their German Beirgarten and sausages!) is an awesome combination.

During the summer, I switch almost exclusively to lighter lagers and sours. There are only a few local breweries doing sours and none have started packaging. (The closest one doing distribution is the amazing Wicked Weed in Asheville.) Summer usually equals a trip to Austin, too, which means stocking up on sours at the Jester King Brewery. So hit me up with some sour recommendations when the weather turns warm, and we can have some fun.

The issue with a thread like this is that there are thousands upon thousands of beers out there and it becomes very difficult to find common ground, especially for non-Americans. I could talk all day about the myriad Québec microbrews that I imbibe weekly but nobody will know wtf I'm talking about...

Having said this I guess I'm still in.. I recently purchased a 2-drawer beer fridge for my "man cave" and proceeded to fill it with excellent micro brews from Québec and Ontario. I have even assigned a portion of it to beer that I will attempt to age. I realize that ageing them in a fridge (which I have set to 7C, the warmest setting possible) as opposed a wine cellar will slow the ageing down but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm ageing primarily Imperial stouts and double porters; strong dark beers that will release more complex flavours over time. I'm on my way tonight to a beer snob dinner where I will be presenting the host a bottle of Dulcis Succubus by Trou Du Diable in Shawinigan. Not really my thing as I'm an IPA/ Imperial Stout guy, but they loved it when we visited the brewery in Shawinigan QC last October:

For me the beer revival in the US has gone tits up in this respect: the local (very popular) beer snobs joint has maybe 100 taps and nearly everyone is an over hopped or flavored or ink dark brew of some kind so I've pretty much stopped going since I prefer a nice malty English style ale or a nice Belgian. They will sometimes have a decent example of the latter. Is it just me or does everyone like hoppy hoppy beer now? Snobs would know that hops are a recent innovation, beer was brewed for thousands of years without hops and really IPAs would probably one of the few proper examples of a heavily hopped darker ale - and that was done to preserve the ale during shipping...

The combined fortunes of the world's 26 richest individuals reached $1.4 trillion last year — the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest people.

Definitely in. I agree with Yves as a Canadian a reference to many of the suggestions never will be understood because of geography. I\ve visited 60 breweries in Ontario, 1 in Quebec, 7 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Michigan, and a brewpub in Chicago. Some good some bad. I collect glasses from the places I've been to. Looking to make a display case for them.

Yves, I'm heading to Terra Incognita in May after visiting my daughter in Ottawa. Any suggestions of microbreweries I should visit along the way?

"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau

Having said this I guess I'm still in.. I recently purchased a 2-drawer beer fridge for my "man cave" and proceeded to fill it with excellent micro brews from Québec and Ontario. I have even assigned a portion of it to beer that I will attempt to age. I realize that ageing them in a fridge (which I have set to 7C, the warmest setting possible) as opposed a wine cellar will slow the ageing down but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm ageing primarily Imperial stouts and double porters; strong dark beers that will release more complex flavours over time.

Probably best that you stick with ageing those styles. I have a beer cellar, which at one time had upwards of 30 cases in it. (Not a case of 30 different beers, but different beers that would add up to more than 30 cases.) Anyway, I've come to the realization that for me, most beers are better fresh. Over time, most beers/ales move towards Barleywine. Some get somewhat sour, but not like a sour style. The styles you mentioned should fare pretty well, though. One that I can recommend cellaring is Victory V-12. It improves the flavor and ups the already high alcohol content. Tremendous stuff aged.

"If you want to see the true nature of humanity, just look at the internet."

Is it just me or does everyone like hoppy hoppy beer now? Snobs would know that hops are a recent innovation, beer was brewed for thousands of years without hops and really IPAs would probably one of the few proper examples of a heavily hopped darker ale - and that was done to preserve the ale during shipping...

I greatly favor the IPA style. Give me bitter over sweet any day. And yes, it's probably the most popular style among craft beer aficionados, but it is a dividing line. I meet plenty of people (mostly women) at beer events who do not like hoppy beer.

"If you want to see the true nature of humanity, just look at the internet."

I greatly favor the IPA style. Give me bitter over sweet any day. And yes, it's probably the most popular style among craft beer aficionados, but it is a dividing line. I meet plenty of people (mostly women) at beer events who do not like hoppy beer.

I don't care if it's something I'll ever try or not - it's just fun to hear about it, and see pictures of beer.

When I was a kid I used to take magazines and cut out pictures of the liquor bottles in the ads and keep them. Weird, I know! They looked good, and made me thirsty! All the nice green glass, etc. I'm sure my parents were worried.

I greatly favor the IPA style. Give me bitter over sweet any day. And yes, it's probably the most popular style among craft beer aficionados, but it is a dividing line. I meet plenty of people (mostly women) at beer events who do not like hoppy beer.

The New Prog Beer Snob Thread

Originally Posted by Buddhabreath

For me the beer revival in the US has gone tits up in this respect: the local (very popular) beer snobs joint has maybe 100 taps and nearly everyone is an over hopped or flavored or ink dark brew of some kind so I've pretty much stopped going since I prefer a nice malty English style ale or a nice Belgian. They will sometimes have a decent example of the latter. Is it just me or does everyone like hoppy hoppy beer now? Snobs would know that hops are a recent innovation, beer was brewed for thousands of years without hops and really IPAs would probably one of the few proper examples of a heavily hopped darker ale - and that was done to preserve the ale during shipping...

Well, if you are planning on having 100 taps you're probably also thinking of offering a large variety of beers, no?

I don't consider myself a beer snob at all, probably because I don't pay much attention to what is involved with making various styles of beer, etc. I try different beers and based on those experiences I've found some beers I like and others that I don't.

I didn't plan it this way, but generally I've come to love really hoppy beers after having been through various stages of hating hoppy beers and preferring stouts, lagers, and browns.

For me flavored beers are usually an abomination and I wonder why people want beers that don't taste like beer.

But it's no different than music - if people like that stuff who am I to tell 'em they're wrong? And sometimes it's cool to have a large assortment on tap so you can try stuff you wouldn't want to risk buying an entire 6-pack of.

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Last edited by Plasmatopia; 12-19-2015 at 11:15 PM.

Just sitting at home rocking back and forth and jealously caressing my invisible collection of theoretical assets.

Right before Thanksgiving I had a couple days off from work and decided to make the hour drive to get in line for the Tuesday delivery of Heady Topper in Winooski, VT. With a half hour left before that 10am opening at the beverage store I was something like 38th in line. Depending on how many are in line they hand out a certain amount of cases, then half cases, then two 4-packs, then single 4-packs. So I spent two hours driving and an hour at the store for the privilege of paying $28 for 8 cans of beer.

The beer was pretty good but I doubt I'd do that again.

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Just sitting at home rocking back and forth and jealously caressing my invisible collection of theoretical assets.

For me the beer revival in the US has gone tits up in this respect: the local (very popular) beer snobs joint has maybe 100 taps and nearly everyone is an over hopped or flavored or ink dark brew of some kind so I've pretty much stopped going since I prefer a nice malty English style ale or a nice Belgian. They will sometimes have a decent example of the latter. Is it just me or does everyone like hoppy hoppy beer now? Snobs would know that hops are a recent innovation, beer was brewed for thousands of years without hops and really IPAs would probably one of the few proper examples of a heavily hopped darker ale - and that was done to preserve the ale during shipping...

IPA is my favorite style, although I drink a little bit of everything.

The overly hopped beers are starting to take a back seat, at least here in Québec. Last summer saw many brewers making session beers. Sure some were hoppy, but they weren't these 9% / 100+ IBU beers we were seeing a few years ago. I like a good IPA myself, but I also like to venture in the Imperial Stouts. As with anything else in life I'm about exploring the extremes. What I don't like are wheat beers and reds. I am also not a fan of watery beers and rarely buy any that aren't at least at 6.5%.